McGregor 1

Section 04: "Harlem Renaissance, 1919-1940"

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of prolific writing and artistry for the United States. Periodicals

(magazines, journals, newspapers), novels, poetry, plays, painting, sculpture, music (jazz, the blues, classical),

and art in life flourished in Harlem where large groups of artists and civil rights leaders gathered, studying,

discussed, and acted. Reading this section is crucial in understanding the transition from post-slavery into the

Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s-1970s.

Additionally, topics in this section include discussions of music, and understanding the blues lends to a greater

understanding of African American expression of cultural, artistic, and personal beliefs and achievements. Who

can hear the first guitar strings played without understanding the sorrowful tone they are hearing is the blues?

Love, betrayal, abandonment, hope, joy, fear, "the pits"--every emotion is related in the blues, and the essence is

one of reality and "personal experience" ("Episode 1"). If you have never heard the blues, if you would simply

like to hear some samples, or if you want to collect knowledge for the test, The Blues: The Radio Series is a

Public Radio International (PRI)-sponsored site with musical feeds that are narrated by Keb Mo' and with

interviews with John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Carlos Santana, Mick Jagger, Bonnie Raitt, and others. They

explain the units, poetry, cords, and other crucial concepts about the blues better than I could even hope to

recount. So, go there (click to "Episode 1: The Birth of the Blues,"

http://www.yearoftheblues.org/radio/index.asp?id={7755A930-6ECF-4F56-A7C5-B45949457634}&, and

under the Listen heading, click the Full Version link. The episodes last about an hour, and listeners learn about

midway through the recording about the African heritage and reasons behind the length and melody of some of

the songs. And, you get to hear another version of Stagolee, or Stackolee from Section 01. Additionally, Charlie

Parker is one of the jazz-blues artists mentioned in "Sonny's Blues" who inspires Sonny to continue with his

music. The Lake Land College Library has a copy of Parker’s Yardbird Suite on CD to borrow or listen to help

you hear what Sonny's brother hears and how he comes to understand Sonny and the blues. Baldwin's thorough

description of the club coupled with the music in the background would sit you right in the middle of the club

listening to him play. Finally, the concepts of roots of slavery, its folk poem foundation, the structure of the

stanzas, and the concept of improvisation is what you should listen for and be able to communicate.

The Harlem Renaissance also ushered a value in slave narrative. Hurston, as witnessed in Section 01,

interviewed, recorded, photographed, preserved, and studied African American culture as a part of the Federal

Writers Project. I have directed you to pictures of the project in previous sections, but in this section,

experiencing the project in its period is crucial. American Memory from the Library of Congress has archived

the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1938 collection at

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html. These narratives are biographical and entertaining through

the telling of personal stories. For example, while the story “Still Carries Scars from Lashes” interview with

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves would be considered entertainment in the sense of a story, but it becomes so

educational in the form of splitting of families, definition of slave roles, women’s marriage and reproductive

rights, and much more. When accessing the site, the first click students should make is a click to the Special

Presentations section to the “An Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives” series by Norman R. Yetman. In

the “Voices and Faces from the Collection” section, viewers can see pictures of the slaves, such as Graves,

whose stories are recorded, and the actual narratives begin on the page with the pictures. To view her whole

story, a click to the “Read the rest of this narrative” link transitions to a page where a viewer must click the

“View page images” to read the whole narrative. Another site is, again, part of an American Memories

collection titled Voices from the Days of Slavery site and located at

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/. On this site, you can listen to former slaves tell their stories

or give advice to their listeners in the voice of interviewed former slaves.

McGregor 2

Assignments

3/26, Read the background section "Harlem Renaissance, 1919-1940" (953-62) written by Gates and McKay as

you complete this section, using the information in the overview to help you relate and analyze the material.

A. Write an Original Posting in the Section Four: "Harlem Renaissance, 1919-1940" forum to the idea that

stands out to you as helping clarify something you did not understand or previously know about the

Harlem Renaissance.

3/26, Read Arthur A. Schomburg's background (962-3), "The Negro Digs Up His Past" (963-7), and answer one

of the following questions in an original posting.

A. Study the "three outstanding conclusions" Schomburg begins on page 963, and trace how he supports

those points throughout the text.

B. Locate a work of one of the black authors Schomburg mentions in the history and trace their

contributions through JSTOR or Literary Reference Center Plus, using your findings to locate that

author's contributions. Since we have already studied Phillis Wheatley, you may not locate her works.

C. In the Reference section and the stacks of the library, find a book that describes black firsts. Find and

write about someone in your major whose invention or contribution shaped society but whom students

may not read about in history classes.

3/26, Read Claude McKay's background (1003-6), "If We Must Die" (1007), and "America" (1008) and answer

one of the following questions in an original posting:

A. What is the form of "If We Must Die"? What is the rhyme scheme? What does his form and rhyme add

to the reader's understanding of the poem? What images appear repeatedly throughout the poem? Pick

one, and describe its significance in the poem. Define the image in literal terms--what ____ means--and

then define it figuratively--what _____ represents. Does the image always represent the same idea, or

does that idea transform throughout the piece?

A. What is the form of "America"? What is the rhyme scheme? What does his form and rhyme add to the

reader's understanding of the poem? What images appear repeatedly throughout the poem? Pick one, and

describe its significance in the poem. Define the image in literal terms--what ____ means--and then

define it figuratively--what _____ represents. Does the image always represent the same idea, or does

that idea transform throughout the piece?

3/26, Read Zora Neale Hurston's background (1019-22), "Sweat" (1022-30), and answer one of the following

questions in an original posting. On one side note, I was able to visit Zora Neale Hurston's hometown Eatonville

in December of 2006, and the town still carries on a lot of the traditions Hurston recorded even today. They

have celebrations, quilting exhibitions to help folks understand the role of quilts and commoners when the

Underground Railroad ran, and an active preservation society, known as the Association to Preserve the

Eatonville Community, Inc. (P.E.C.). The towns Hurston and Gates and McKay describe in the anthology are a

few miles from one another, and the descriptions you read in "Sweat" are quite real. The area is rather built up

between the towns she describes, but Eatonville is holding onto its town and fought the building of a freeway

through the town, thanks to the efforts of N. Y. Nathiri and a community that places value on arts and heritage

(Nathiri 3-5). You may learn more at the "About Zora Neal Hurston" page and links to the preservation society

at http://www.zorafestival.com/zora.html. If you would like to see pictures of Hurston's world, you can visit the

American Memories site (visit this link and type Hurston into the search box) made available through the

Library of Congress. While you are there, visit the United States--Florida--Eatonville collection (visit this site

McGregor 3

and type United States Florida Eatonville into the search box) to see more of the area in which she lived and

about which she wrote.

A. Delia often expresses herself through African-American folk proverbs or religious statements. Choose

two of these expressions and explain how they foreshadow events in the story.

B. The townspeople all know that Sykes mistreats Delia. What unified action do they take to express their

displeasure? Is this an effective action? Why or why not? What else could the townspeople have done?

C. After Sykes has been bitten by the snake, Delia hears him call her name. Why doesn't she respond to his

calls for help? Since she does not respond, is Delia partially responsible for Sykes's death? Why or why

not?

3/28, Read Langston Hughes' background (1288-91), "The Weary Blues" (1294-5), and answer one of the

following questions in an original posting:

A. What do you think Hughes means when he uses the term "weary blues"?

B. Are African Americans the only persons who can "have the blues'" and “understand the blues”? Ground

your answer in the poetry and in what you have learned from the episode from The Blues: The Radio

Series.

C. The speaker states the musician was "droning a drowsy syncopated tune" (Hughes line 1). What do you

think he means by this metaphor?

3/28, Read Langston Hughes' "The Blues I'm Playing" (1315-25) and answer one of the following questions in

an original posting:

A. Discuss the progression of plot in this story. Where does the exposition end and the rising action begin?

Trace the rest of the parts of plot, supporting your reasons why the transitions occur in these spots

around the protagonist and antagonist, so defining those two elements are crucial for the answer, too.

You might begin this answer by stating something similar to "The protagonist is ______, and the central

conflict revolves around ______. This means that the plot progression moves..." Do not use that

sentence verbatim, but use the ideas to help you define elements of the literature.

B. Who is the narrator of the story? How do you know that? Discuss the point of view and perspective from

which this story is described. Remember that you can find the terms narrator and point-of-view on Dr.

Wheeler’s site.

C. Discuss Hughes use of irony when the narrator discusses Mrs. Ellsworth. Why is the tone effective for

the story? Remember that you can find the terms irony and narrator on Dr. Wheeler’s site.

McGregor 4

Works Cited

"Episode 1: The Birth of the Blues." The Blues: The Radio Series With Keb Mo'. Public Radio International.

WCGH Radio. EMP Radio. Ben Manilla Productions. Year of the Blues 2003. Web. 3 January 2007.

<http://www.yearoftheblues.org/radio/index.asp?id={7755A930-6ECF-4F56-A7C5-

B45949457634}&>.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay (eds.). The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.

Second Edition. New York: Norton, 2004. Print.

Hughes, Langston. "The Blues I'm Playing." 1934. Gates and McKay 1315-25.

---. "The Weary Blues." 1925. Gates and McKay 1294-5.

Hurston, Zora Neale. "Sweat." 1926. Gates and McKay 1022-30.

Library of Congress. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1938. 23

March 2001. American Memories. Web. 7 January 2010.

<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html>.

---. Voices from the Days of Slavery. N. d. American Memories. Web. 7 January 2010.

<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/>.

McKay, Claude. "America." 1921. Gates and McKay 1008.

---. "If We Must Die." 1919. Gates and McKay 1007.

Nathiri, N. Y. (comp. and ed.). "Discovery." Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman and Her Community. Orlando:

Sentinel Books, 199l. 3-50.

Schomburg, Arthur A. "The Negro Digs Up His Past." 1925. Gates and McKay 963-7.

"United States--Florida--Eatonville." Southern Music: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States

Recording Trip. 07 September 1999. American Memory. American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Web. 02 January 2007 <http://memory.loc.gov/>.

"Zora Neale Hurston." Southern Music: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. 07

September 1999. American Memory. American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Web. 02 January

2007 <http://memory.loc.gov/>.

“Zora Neale Hurston.” Zora Neale Hurston Festival. 2010. Web. 7 January 2010.

<http://www.zorafestival.com/zora.html>.